Sunday, 30 July 2017

Welcome to Week 2! Please see a few notes and reminders as we head into another busy term!

Stationery

Please check you have all the stationery you need at school every day. Pencils, pens and glue sticks are all in short supply and a lot of time can be wasted searching and sharpening equipment instead of working. A note went home in the home learning books last week highlighting stationery that is needed for your child.

Maths Bricks

It has been great to see the
improvement with the children's speed and accuracy of their basic facts over
the last term. Class teachers will continue to test the children on their maths
brick each week if they feel they are ready to move on to the next brick.

Tissues

Could you please send along a box of tissues for the children to use in class. We all seem to be running short of tissues through these winter months. Thank you.

Poetry Competition

This term we will be having our annual poetry competition. This week the children need to choose a poem that they will be working on learning by memory in class and practising at home. Our in class competitions will be early in week 5 with the Year 3 & 4 final on Friday the 25th of August. Parents are welcome to attend.

Christchurch School of Gymnastics lessons

All year 3 / 4 classes will have 2 gymnastics sessions this term. We will require parent help. All children will travel by bus. A notice will be sent home this week.

Events this term

Week 3: Mufti Day

Week 4: School of Gymnastics

Week 5: School of Gymnastics, Poetry Competition

Week 7: Financial Literacy

Week 9: Bake Sale - fundraiser for the new school library

Clay

This term we will be creating Clay masterpieces as part of our Art Unit. We would love the help of a few parents this Wednesday to help us bag up the clay in preparation for the children to use in the coming weeks. If you have some time available, then we'd love to hear from you - come and see us!

Sunday, 23 July 2017

Welcome back for another exciting term. The children have all had a fantastic first day back. They seemed excited to see their friends and get back into the routine of school.

Term 3 Kahikatea Hub 2017

Kia ora everyone. Welcome back to Term 3. We hope you have all had a relaxing break. It was lovely to see most of you at parent teacher interviews last term and celebrate the progress the children in Kahikatea have been making.

We have another busy term coming up with lots of exciting learning opportunities happening. Let’s hope the weather gets warmer and we can keep the winter coughs and colds at bay.

Please check your child has all the necessary stationery for the term ahead. Last term we had many children without a pencil or pen at school and a large amount of time was spent searching for equipment.

Home learning will be much the same as the previous two terms. It is important the children are taking responsibility for their own independent reading and basic facts revision at home. We encourage the children to write a sentence or look up the meaning for their spelling words this term.

This term the children will have a turn to find a piece of news that interests them and then present their news to the class on a Friday morning. The roster and details for this is glued into their home learning book today. Please check what week your child is presenting.

Weekly notes and reminders for Kahikatea Hub will continue to be added to our Blog every Monday.

Here is a brief overview of the term ahead:

INQUIRY: We are continuing to build on our school wide theme of “Building and Structures” and will be focusing on Building Imaginations. Our focus is around myths and legends from around the world. We are hoping to create a mask or costume piece for each child based on a mythical creature they are interested in. Any donations of materials for decorating, strong cardboard or wool would be greatly appreciated. If your child has any books at home on myths and legends that they are happy to share with others, please bring them along to school.

In the later part of the term we will be thinking about our new school library and looking at creative ways to contribute to library as a hub.

WRITING: We start the term off with a focus on instructional writing and then move to narrative writing. We will explore fairytales and myths and legends and write our own. During the middle part of the term we will be focusing on poetry and exploring different forms of poems and writing a number of our own.

READING: We continue to build on our knowledge of comprehension strategies this term. We will be looking at texts about myths and legends from around the world. We will also be reading a number of poems in preparation for the poetry competition in week 5 of the term. The children will be working in their guided reading groups with the teacher and will have reading activities when working independently.

We encourage the children to be reading a range of books and reading independently at home. Please remember that the children may not necessarily always bring a reader home from school every day this term.

ORAL LANGUAGE: This term we will be preparing for our poetry competition in week 5. The children will choose one poem that interests them and learn it off by heart to present to the class. Finalists will be chosen from each class. The year ¾ poetry finals will be held on the Friday of week 5.

We also have a current news focus this term and the children have been allocated a Friday where they will present their news.

MATHEMATICS: We continue with our math classes with a focus multiplication and division strategies. We will learn about time and money towards the end of the term and incorporate fractions and algebra into our term teaching.

PE: We start the term off with a focus on invasion games and developing our skills in a range of sports that use large balls. We will be learning some gymnastics skills and have two sessions planned at the Christchurch School of Gymnastics towards the middle of the term. We will require parent help for these sessions. More information will be sent home in the coming weeks.

VISUAL ARTS: For the first couple of weeks of the term the children will be working on their calendar art. We will then begin designing and making a creative mask or piece of headgear/clothing related to our myths and legends inquiry.

We are certainly looking forward to a fantastic term ahead. If you or your child have any concerns or worries please come and see us or email your child’s home base teacher.

Monday, 17 July 2017

It
was Leo's first day at Monster School. His parents gave him a kiss and cuddle
then said good bye.

His
teacher was very nice. She had purple skin and two heads which both smiled
happily at him.

"This
is Leo. Leo would you like to tell us about yourself?" Miss Fortune waved
him up to stand in front of the class.

"Hi,
my name is Leo. I like playing sport. My favourite sport is Rugby." The
class smiled and whispered.

Leo
realised some of the kids in the class had tails too. One girl had a feathery
tail like a bird and one boy had two tails that looked tiger's tails. Another
girl had red skin and bright yellow hair. One boy had a skinny, long nose like
Pinocchio.

"You
can sit down now," Miss Fortune said.

Leo
sat down next to the boy with two tails. The boy smiled and whispered,
"I'm Bede and I like rugby too."

Then
the class did reading. He was the only one to read a book to the teacher by
himself because she was trying to find what reading group he was in.

After
reading, he sat down with the class to listen to the teacher. The class were
writing a shared story about going to the zoo. Leo hadn't been to the zoo with
them so he got bored. He started playing with his tail by flicking the spikes
with his fingers.

"Stop
playing with your spikes, Leo," Miss Fortune growled.

Leo
stopped flicking his spikes and he shivered. He took a big breath to stop
himself from crying.

The
class finished their zoo writing and Leo wrote a story about himself.

Later,
the bell rang for lunch. After eating his food, Leo realised he had no friends.
A boy covered in black feathers came up to Leo. He was carrying a cricket bat
and a ball.

"I'm
Billie. Would you like to play cricket?"

Leo
shook his head. He was too shy to say yes.

"I'm
Lizzy. Would you like to play tag with me and my friends?" The girl with
the feathery tail asked him.

"No
thank you," Leo said because he saw Bede had a rugby ball. "Can I
play rugby with you, Bede?"

Bede
said yes.

They
played Touch. There were lots of tries, lots of running and lots of passing the
ball. Finally Leo got the ball. He side stepped someone and dodged another.
Bede was coming up behind him and was about to touch him. But Leo's tail got in
the way. Bede reached out and the spikes swung around to cut his arm.

The
game stopped and everyone gathered around Bede lying on the ground holding his
arm. Leo comes over nervous that he had hurt his new friend.

There
was blood on Bede's arm and he was crying softly.

Leo
was worried because one of the other kids went to get a teacher. He thought he
would get told off and sent to the principal. So he ran away to hide behind a
big oak tree on the other side of the school.

He
stayed there for the rest of lunchtime. When the bell rang he was still too
scared to go back to class so he stayed behind the tree.

Eventually
Miss Fortune found him.

"Leo,
are you alright? We miss you in class. Bede says you are a good rugby
player."

"Thank
you," Leo said.

"Come
and see what the children have made for you."

Leo
followed her to the classroom. Inside, the class had a bag and a roll of cello
tape.

Bede
had a bandage on his arm and was smiling at Leo. "When you want to play
rugby with us, you could wear this cotton wool around your spiky tail." He
pulled a bit of cotton wool out of the bag and gave it to Leo.

Leo
smiled and wrapped the cotton wool around his spikes. "That's a great
idea, thank you."

Bede
put his arm around Leo's shoulders. "Do you want to be in my rugby
team?"

Sunday, 2 July 2017

We are now almost half way through the school year and I am sure a lot of families are looking forward to the two week break. If you are not lucky enough to be heading away remember to check out some of the great activities happening at Kidsfest for these school holidays - http://www.kidsfest.co.nz/

Interviews are 15 minutes long and you are more than welcome to bring your child along too.

Reports Online
Hopefully by now you have accessed your child's mid-year report through our STAr reporting system. If you have yet to do so, please can you make sure that you have taken the opportunity to read your child's report prior to your interview.

Recyclable Junk Structure

On the last day of term the children will be designing and constructing a structure out of recyclable junk. Can you please start collecting items at home that would be suitable for this e.g. cereal boxes, milk cartons or tubes. You can bring these into your homebase room on either Thursday 6th June or Friday 7th June.

Stationery

Please can you check with your child if there is any stationery that they require and top up over the school holidays. We are finding that a number of children are short on writing pencils and blue pens. Please can all stationery be named. If you write on your child's name with vivid and cover it with a piece of sellotape it prevents it from rubbing off.